Scientific reports
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With the rapidly rising popularity and substantial evolution of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in the past 5-6 years, how these devices are used by vapers and consumers' exposure to aerosol emissions need to be understood. We used puffing topography to measure directly product use. We adapted a cigarette puffing topography device for use with e-cigarettes. ⋯ Vapers' mean puff durations (2.0 s and 2.2 s) were similar with both types of e-cigarette, but mean puff volumes (52.2 mL and 83.0 mL) and mean inter-puff intervals (23.2 s and 29.3 s) differed significantly. The differing data show that product characteristics influence puffing topography and, therefore, the results obtained from a given e-cigarette might not read across to other products. Understanding the factors that affect puffing topography will be important for standardising testing protocols for e-cigarette emissions.
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Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) represent a neurophysiological approach to assess conduction in the spinothalamic tract. The aim of this study was to establish normative values of CHEPs acquired from cervical dermatomes (C4, C6, C8) and examine the potential confounds of age, sex, and height. 101 (49 male) healthy subjects of three different age groups (18-40, 41-60, and 61-80 years) were recruited. Normal (NB, 35-52 °C) followed by increased (IB, 42-52 °C) baseline stimulation protocols were employed to record CHEPs. ⋯ The study provides normative CHEPs data in a large cohort of healthy subjects from segmentally examined cervical dermatomes. Age and sex were identified as important factors contributing to N2 latency and N2P2 amplitude. The normative data will improve the diagnosis of spinal cord pathologies.
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CXCL13 is a B lymphocyte chemoattractant and activates CXCR5 receptor in the immune system. Here we investigated whether CXCL13/CXCR5 mediates inflammatory pain in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and the underlying mechanisms. Peripheral injection of complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) increased the expression of CXCL13 and CXCR5 in DRG neurons. ⋯ CFA and CXCL13 increased p38 phosphorylation in the DRG of WT mice but not Cxcr5-/- mice. Finally, intrathecal p38 inhibitor alleviated CXCL13-induced pain hypersensitivity. Taken together, these results demonstrated that CXCL13, upregulated by peripheral inflammation, acts on CXCR5 on DRG neurons and activates p38, which increases Nav1.8 current density and further contributes to the maintenance of inflammatory pain.
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Meta Analysis
The Prognostic Value of PLR in Lung Cancer, a Meta-analysis Based on Results from a Large Consecutive Cohort.
Recently, many studies have been conducted to explore prognostic value of platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for patients with lung cancer, while the results remain controversial. We collected pretreatment, clinicopathological and follow-up data of 1388 lung cancer patients receiving surgery between 2006 and 2011 in our hospital, and reviewed relevant articles from Embase, Pubmed, Web of science databases, then performed a meta-analysis to clarify the relationship between PLR and prognosis of lung cancer patients. Finally, 11 articles with our study were included, results indicated elevated PLR was negatively related to overall survival (HR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.10-1.62), but not related to progress-free survival (HR = 1.21, 95% CI: 0.97-1.49). ⋯ Besides, for patients treated by chemotherapy or radiotherapy (HR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.15-2.38) and patients in late stage (HR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.19-1.68), PLR had significantly prognostic value. Additionally, the result was significant for patients when cut-off value of PLR was between 150 and 200 (HR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.18-1.82). In Conclusion, this meta-analysis revealed that elevated PLR was associated with poor prognosis in lung cancer.
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Specific frontolimbic abnormalities are hypothesized to underlie the etiology of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, findings from neuroimaging studies were inconsistent. In the current study, we aimed to provide a complete overview of cerebral microstructural alterations in gray matter (GM) of BPD patients. ⋯ The mean age of BPD patients were found nagativly associated with GM alterations in right MFG. Our findings suggested that BPD patients have significantly GM abnormalities in the default mode network and frontolimbic circuit. Our results provided further evidences in elucidating the underline neural mechanisms of BPD.